By Paul Homewood
We now have provisional electricity statistics from China last year, via the China Energy Portal.
These two graphs sum matters up perfectly:
https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2017-electricity-energy-statistics/
Thermal output has increased by 209 Twh, with much smaller increases in wind and solar. It is clear that renewables cannot alone keep up with increasing demand in China.
Although the China Electricity Council, where the data comes from, don’t split thermal into coal and gas, it still dominates, accounting for 70% of generation.
Solar and wind only supply 6.6%, up from 5.1% in 2016.
It seems likely that renewables will continue to increase their share of electricity generation in the next few years. But if demand continues to grow, it is also highly probable that thermal generation will also increase in absolute terms.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
February 16, 2018 at 05:03AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 